Friday, June 27, 2014

Finish Report! Baby Claridge 1.0 - Boomerangs for Olivia and her Boy

Can you believe it? A finish report coming out of me this year? ;D They will be very few between my thesis work and my MONSTER "25th, Baby!" king-size double wedding ring quilting that I'm trying hard to finish in time for our anniversary in August. But I do have two posts that need to be put up.

This is "Baby Claridge 1.0"

It's made for my cousin's daughter, who just had a precious little boy. On Mother's Day. How awesome is that?

I used mostly stash with a couple of fat quarters (Sesame Street! and a yellow), using Emily Herrick's Crazy Old Ladies pattern, "Boomerang". I just made fewer boomerangs, and after I had them assembled I trimmed the top and bottom straight across. Here's the original on the pattern:

I quilted this entirely on the walking foot. Wanting to highlight the boomerangs, I simply outline-stitched each one about 1/16" outside in a thread that matched the background, then I used a wavy stitch to sew two lines on the insides with whatever thread matched best, and using a couple different guide points on my foot for that.

Wanting to minimize the seams between the boomerangs, I found a fun decorative stitch on the machine and put that between the sides. I was thinking they looked kinda-sorta like lines of baseballs - perfect for a little boy!

And, yep - I went for the start-and-stop approach with each one rather than sew them through the boomerangs above and below. It wasn't that big a deal to sit down in front of a movie to tie and tuck all my ends from each 'rang and divider line.

I have tons of yardage of this fun hot air balloon fabric, which was perfect for the backing on this.

And that led to a fun idea for the label. (Which I had to redo - thank you! - due to misspelling the little guy's name despite frequent checking on that.)

It has a lightweight poly batting, which makes a nice puffiness without being stiff that will be highly washable.

LOVED working with this pattern. The design is perky and the instructions are easy to follow. In fact, I have another one in a different colorway for myself that I'd started back in April or so. I'll probably get back to it in August after the MONSTER's quilting is finished.

So darling, Lyn! That design is really neat, and the simple way you quilted it suits it perfectly. Your label shape is really clever too. I'm so happy for you to have a finish. I'm sure that's a fabulous feeling what with everything you have on your plate these days - house guests, school work, family, and summer!